- What's up everyone? Welcome to Yoga with Adriene. I'm Adriene and today we have a core strength ritual for you. This is a really great video to supplement with your yoga practice or another workout. Maybe you just went for a run or a nice, long walk and you're wanting a little bit more, right? So this is a practice that's just beautiful for your core, right, so whether you're looking to get chiseled for the swimsuit season or you're just wanting to support your back and prevent back pain, or maybe you're wanting to fly in other yoga postures, this is an exercise that's going to rock your core, so get into something comfy, put on a good attitude, connect to your breath, and let's get started. (lively bouncy drumming and guitar strumming) Alrighty partners, let's start flat on our backs. Go ahead and walk the heels up towards your hips and bring the hands to the belly here. So I'm gonna guide us through our core strength ritual today, but I invite you to really take charge of your breath so that we're moving with the breath and so that the breath is fueling our movements. So bringing our yoga mindset and the yoga mindfulness to our practice, to our workout. Snuggle the shoulder blades underneath your heart space. Toes pointing forward, knees up towards the sky. Go ahead and lengthen the lower back here, so you might even lift the tailbone up so that you can find a nice connect. We're gonna need this as we move throughout our ritual today. Nice connect with the lower back to the mat. And tuck the chin just slightly, lengthen through the back of the neck, and then start to breathe into your hands. We're gonna do three conscious breaths. Here we go, starting with a big inhale in through the nose. (inhaling) And a big exhale, out through the nose or mouth, yogi's choice. (exhaling) Inhale, big conscious breath. And exhale, relax your shoulders. Go ahead and close your eyes for this last big breath in. And exhale out. Great, send the hands down to the ground, in line with the heels around the hips here. Everyone's different so honor where your body's at today. And do your best. Staying focused on the breath, we'll inhale, begin to press into the feet and lift the hip points up towards the sky. Big breath to lift you up. Big exhale to lower down. Inhale, press into all four corners of the feet. Lift up starting with the tail. And exhale to lower. And one more time, inhale, lift all the way up. This time really keep the chin lifted up towards the ceiling. We're gonna use this throughout our practice today. Go ahead and snuggle the shoulder blades here. Big breath in. And exhale to release. Awesome work. Alright, so scoop the tailbone, again so that lower back is nice and flush with the mat. Alright, now interlace the fingertips. Bring them up and over, behind the head here. Extend the thumbs. Give yourself a little neck massage here. If you have a pony tail or a bun, you might move it to the side. And then just take a second, again to breathe deep, open elbows nice and wide. Alright, here we go. Inhale in. Exhale, lift the head, the neck, the shoulders up. Just take a second here to create a little hammock for the neck, and then we're gonna slowly lift the chin up towards the sky, engaging the muscles of the abdominal wall. Keep the elbows nice and wide, so notice if they're coming in here, keep it up. If you can, lift up a little more, lifting the shoulder blades, breathe deep. Lower back flush with the mat. You might be awesome here, staying here, breathing, or you might lift the shins parallel up towards the ceiling, knees in line with the hip points or slightly in front. Breathe deep here. Chin up towards the sky. Chest open, lots of space between the bottom of the chin and your heart center. Breathe deep, you got this. Thumbs are extended for a little extra support in your neck hammock. Inhale in. Exhale out. Great, on your next inhale, lower. And on your next exhale, lift back right to where you were. Inhale, lower. Exhale, lift. Keep the elbows wide. Inhale, lower. Exhale, lift. Moving with the breath. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Keep it going, smile, inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, chin stays lifted. Exhale, lift the tailbone towards the sky, navel down. Inhale. Exhale, can you lift the shoulders a little higher? Inhale. Exhale, lift. Inhale, lower. Exhale, lift. Three more, you got this. Inhale, lower. Exhale, lift. Inhale, lower. Exhale, lift. Last one, inhale, lower. Exhale, lift and hold. Keep the chin lifting up towards the sky. Add a little action to the feet here, rolling the ankles, rotating the ankles, pointing and flexing the toes here with the feet, and then nice and easy, reaching the fingertips towards the heels, palms face up, we're gonna breathe here for ten seconds, you got it. Chin is lifted. Open in the chest. Tailbone scooping up. Big breaths here. Welcoming some heat. Inhale in. Exhale out. Great, take one more breath cycle. You got this. Pinkies up towards the sky. Open the palms, open the chest. And then exhale, release everything. Knees wide, soles of the feet together. Hands come to the belly. And we relax. Great, bring the knees together, press up off the toes. We'll come right back to where we were. Inhale, in. Exhale, lifting the chest. See if you can really lift your shoulders. Again, not crunching here, but looking up towards the ceiling so peek at the video when you need to, but then take your gaze straight up and slightly back, almost as if you're looking up past your third eye here. Alright, we're coming back here, engage. Scooping the tailbone up. I'm gonna inhale, reach the fingertips up and over. Exhale, take the fingertips or palms together, Namaste. Or you can take ol' Simba here. And over to the left, and we're gonna extend the right leg out all the way. Let it hover. Breathe here. Inhale in. Exhale out. Inhale, draw the right knee all the way back up, and same thing, just carving a line through space with your right heel. Keep the chin lifted so I'm not crunching here. Shoulders nice and high. Let it hover. And inhale, bring it in. All the way up towards the sky. Lots of energy through the feet here. Carving a line through space with your right heel. You can also come here to interlace the fingertips, but I like to keep my arms extended. Bring it in all the way up. Then slow and steady here, taking up space with your right leg. Great, keep it going. Knees come together, inhale. Exhale, sliding it down. Collar bone nice and open here. Beautiful, let's do one more. (deep breathing) Let it hover. Then navel draws down as you bring the right knee back in. Great, take a second to rest in the middle here if you need. Relax the shoulders, big breath in. Big breath out through the mouth. And back up we go. Palms up, loop the shoulders nice and open through the chest. Inhale, reach the arms up. Fingertips reach towards the sky. And exhale, now onto the right, opposite side. Keep the chest nice and open. And when you're ready, left leg all the way up. We start to carve a line through space. Now energetically, I'm keeping my tailbone up, lower back pressing flush down to the mat. And lower, let it hover. Engage full abdominal wall, and then reach it back up, knees together. Here we go. Moving in your own time. Resist the urge to rush this so slow and steady, toning the core. If you have a block, you might even hold it here out to the side or you can choose another prop just to give yourself a little action through the fingertips and the hands. Nice and slow, tailbone scooping up, navel drawing down. Beautiful, keep it going. You got this, nice and slow and steady wins the race. Stay with your breath. Lift the shoulders up a little more, you got this. Keep the heart open, mind open. I am strong. Great, do one more wherever you are. Let it hover, you got this. And then bring it into center. Awesome, we'll return back to Supta Baddha Konasana. Give your belly a little pet, maybe clockwise direction, knees wide. Great, from here we're gonna move to butterfly crunches. So interlace the fingertips, bring them behind the head, create the same little neck hammock here with the thumbs extended. Option here also to bring the fingertips to the temples, elbows nice and wide in either variation. Alright, tops of the thighs draw down. If you feel any discomfort in the lower back body, you'll experiment with drawing your toes further away or drawing the heels closer to your center. Here we go, hug the lower ribs in, inhale in, exhale lift. Just find the shape here. Find this nice, long length here first. And then baby crunches, it's important to not think about the crunch happening in your neck, but in the muscles of the abdominal wall. So keep your gaze straight up and back, chin lifted towards the sky, and just baby pulses here. (quick breaths) Use your breath. So again, we're wanting to create movement in the belly, not really in the neck. So the spine is nice and long. Baby pulses here. Little butterfly crunches. (quick breaths) Maybe they get a little bit higher. But chin still lifting towards the sky. Use your exhale. Five more seconds. (quick breaths) And release, that was hard to count. Bring the knees together. Give yourself a big bear hug, you're doing awesome work. We're almost done here. Really, really awesome. I'm gonna take a second to just cross the right leg over the left and find cow legs here. You might grab the big toes or the outer edges of the feet. Big breath in. Big breath out as you unravel. Take the left leg over, grab the outer edge. Beautiful, breathing deep. And then we'll unravel here. Bring the knees right underneath the hip points. Shins parallel to the ceiling. This time fingertips are gonna come to the temples so you know you can always come to the neck hammock variation, elbows wide in both variations. Inhale in. Exhale, lift the head, the neck, the shoulders up. We're gonna twist here so we're coming into a center, really lifting the shoulders as high as you can go, lower back flush with the mat. And we're gonna twist. Right elbow to the left knee. Really try to reach your elbow to your knee rather than your knee to your elbow, so coming here, then we'll come back to center, and lower. Lower on the inhale. Exhale, lift up to center. Engage, crossing over. Left elbow to right knee. Really reach the elbow to the knee rather than the knee to the elbow. Inhale to center. And lower. Exhale, lift up. Crossing over. Center, down. Center, cross. Center, down. Center, twist. Center, down. And now moving at your own pace with your breath. Don't bypass that center move. When you come to center, really scoop the tailbone up, engage the belly, tighten the belly, and then crossing over to twist. Again, elbow towards the knee, not knee towards the elbow. Keep it going. Keep the elbows wide. And do one more on each side. It's hard to find that center. Ooh, yeah. Great, and then after you've done your last one, take the hands to the backs of the thighs, squeeze the knees in, relax your shoulders. Take a deep breath in through the nose. And exhale out through the mouth. (exhaling breath) Great, soles of the feet come to the ground. And we're gonna cross the right ankle over, excuse me the right leg over the left. Great, then shift your hips to the right side of your mat just a hair, and allow your legs to fall over towards the left. Great, interlace the fingertips behind the head or fingertips to the temple. Inhale in. As you exhale, lift up. Inhale, lower. Exhale, lift. Inhale, lower. Exhale, lift. Inhale, lower. Exhale, lift. Keep it going. (exhaling breaths) And one more. And we'll switch. Release the hands right over to the other side. Walk the hips back to center. This time left leg all the way over the right. Inhale, in. Exhale, let the weight of the legs melt to the right. Did I walk my hips over? Walk your hips over. Interlace behind, here we go. Inhale in. Exhale, lift. Inhale, lower. Exhale, lift. Inhale, chin up. Exhale, belly in. Inhale, look up. Exhale, lift. Keep it going. (exhaling breaths) Let your breath move you. So get into a rhythm. (exhaling breaths) Great and one more. And release, awesome. Take the hips back to center. Hug the knees into the chest. Give yourself a great big bear hug here. And one last move, here we go. Slide the hands to the backs of the thighs. Take a second to just shake it off. And we'll rock all the way up. And come into a plank pose. Alright, almost there, you got this. So forearm plank today, I should've said forearms. So we have variations of plank, so this variation is gonna be on the elbows, shoulder width apart. To start, come onto your forearm plank here, spike the heels towards the back wall or the back edge of your mat. You know you can always lower the knees here. Come into a variation. But for now, give it a try, spike the heels back, draw the shoulders away from the ears, and we're gonna breathe here with the gaze straight down. Draw the navel, hug the lower ribs in. Send the sitting bones towards the heels. Light up an energy throughout the whole body. You got this. Breathing deep, gaze straight down. You got it. (deep breathing) Now take your right toes off the mat. Tap, back to center. Left toes off the mat. You got it. Back to center. Full body strengthener here. To the right. Back to center. And to the left. If you want to spike this up for a little more cardio, little toe jacks, you can do both at the same time. But otherwise, we're keeping it nice and slow and mindful today, building heat. Toning the body. Side to side, press away from your yoga mat. Gaze straight down. Great, do one more on each side, you got this. And then slowly release, knees to the ground, send the sitting bones back, hips back. And Child's Pose. Catch your breath. Breathe deep. (deep breathing) Alright, that was just your warm-up for this next thing. Ha-ha, come on, here we go. Coming onto the right forearm, keeping that same light of the fire that you just did in your whole body, so keep it alive, fully alive. We're gonna come into a side forearm plank. Now options here to lift the hips, stack the feet, and hug the lower ribs in. Or you can, whoa. Or you can take the top leg onto the earth so top foot comes onto the earth, and we still lift the hips up high. Inhale, send the left fingertips up towards the sky. I'll try not to keep you hanging here too long. And exhale, rounding left fingertips in and under. Thread the needle. Inhale, lift up. Exhale, draw the navel in. Thread the needle. Inhale, look up. Exhale, threading. Inhale, look up. Exhale, keep it going. Exhale, lift the hips. Inhale, lift up. Exhale, lift the hips. One more, you got it. Inhale. Exhale, lift the hips. Inhale, look up. And then slowly come back to forearm plank, and we're gonna take it to the other side. So take a little break if you need to in between. And take it to the other side whenever you're ready. Stacking the hips. Stacking the feet. Reach the right fingertips up. Hug the lower ribs in. Collect your energy here. Draw the shoulders away from the ears. Inhale in. Exhale, thread the needle. Inhale, all the way up. Exhale, thread the needle. Feel free to stack the top foot on the earth. Inhale, up. Exhale, threading. Nice and slow, careful not to rush. (deep breathing) Keep the hips lifted. Belly tight. You're doin' awesome. Let's do one more, you got it. Press away from your yoga mat. Full body experience. And then release, awesome. Come back to that forearm plank. Big breath in. Big breath out. Big breath in. Big breath out. Release the knees. Child's Pose. This time swim the fingertips around all the way back and we come to rest. (deep breathing) Press into the tops of the feet. Tuck your chin into your chest. And slowly roll it up. Counter twist. Right hand comes to the left thigh. Left fingertips behind, sit up nice and tall. Inhale. Exhale, twist. Take it to the other side. Big inhale to lift up. And big exhale to twist. Inhale, back to center. And draw the hands at the heart. Alrighty my friends, awesome work. If you're doing this practice with someone, go ahead and give them a high five right now. If you're doing it alone like me, high five right up to the screen or in the air. Really nice work. This is a great video that you can repeat, so if you're wanting more, you can do different reps. You can do this video twice, even three times in a row to really get your core smilin' and on fire. Also really great to support you in other practices like I said before. Favorite this video, bookmark it so you can return to it easily. Share it with your friends, and don't forget that first things first, self love, really accepting where you're at today, and just making it a fun experience on your mat. That's why I love this channel. That's why I love you. So let me hear from you. Questions, comments down below, and I'll see ya next time. Free videos every Wednesday. Peace. Namaste. (lively, bouncy drumming and strumming)